St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-10-20
MISCELLANY.
THE FATE OF NANCY BARTON.

g. Ogdensburg railroad, coming down
from Lancaster to Conway, n. H., when
a few miles below the Notch of the
White mountains, a passenger sitting
i'm front pointing to an eminence at the
left hand, it's summit crowned with a
small cluster of trees, said, "That is
Nancy's Hill. A young woman, they
say, was frozen to death over there
many years ago. | never heard the
whole story, but l believe her lover
deserted her, and she became sort of
demented and wandered away and got
lost"
Nancy's Hill The name and the
incident had heard given in connec-
ton with it haunted me, and on the
verandah of the Kearsarge House that
night, / Intercepted stranger who
seemed to be a resident, as to the true
version of the legend. Fortunately he
knew the whole story, and sitting
there in the twilight l listened to one
of the most affecting episodes of early
New Hampshire history. l give the
story very nearly as l heard it, and in
his own language. He said:-
"AmOng the first settlers of Dart
mouth, now jefferson, in the White
Mountain region was Colonel Joseph
| Whipple. He was brother of Gener-
al William Whipple, one of the signers
of the declaration of independence
| from New Hampshire, and was former
ly of Portsmouth. The Colonel was a
man of wealth and influence, and liv
ing in great style for those days. He
owned four slaves, and employed half
dozen other hands on his large farm,
besides two female domestics in the
house.
at was in 1873 that Colonel Whipple
settled at jefferson. The country
around was then nearly an unbrOken
forest. AT Lancaster, Oh the COnnec-
ticut, there was Il little settlement, and
at Bartlett, this side of the Notch, there
was another infant hamlet. In the
route from Portsmouth the settlers of
those northern townships followed the
valley of the SacO up through the gap
of the mountains. The pass through
the Notch was discovered by John
Nash, famous hunter of the region
long before the settlement of any of
these towns, and he used to make that
hill resting place. On its highest
point he had drawn together the thick
bOughs and the tops of the smaller
trees so as to provide a temporary
shelter. Subsequently the spot was a
common halting place for Immigrants
on their way to the upper townships.
''There was not a house between
jefferson and Bartlett, distance of
thirty miles, and the way through the
wild woods was only a foot path mark
ed 10y the blazing of the trees. Along
this road Colonel Whipple conveyed
his family, household goods and effects
on the backs of horses, of which he
owned dozen strong working beasts.
"Their first house was a log cabin,
but in the second summer the colonel,
who owned a saw-mill, put up frame
house. 1t was|a large square structure
with a wing, two stories high, built
strongly and with high windows that
were barred with heavy shutters. In
the second story there were loop holes,
such as were made in many of the
dwelling houses of a former period.
Whipple had them made so that the
house could be defended against any
attacks by Indians or white men, as he
had valuable property stored away in
the great rOOms-the family silver
plate, and silks and brOadcloths and
Spanish coin, for he had been mer-
chant before he emigrated to jefferson,
and had got rich i'll the East India
trade.
GAS | have said, two domestics as
sisted Mrs. Whipple in the house. One
of these was Nancy Barton. She was
young woman of respectable cOnnec-
tons, and is said to have been very
good looking. She had been in the
COlOners employ from her girlhOOd,
and had saved quite little stock of
money, the hard earnings of several
years of industry.
"Nancy was great favOrite with the
colonel, and very much liked by the
family. She was girl of great excel
lence of character, and more than aver
her wit and bravery she saved the
tive TO Canada. l have heard my
grandfather tell the story great many
times when | was a boy.
''AccOrding to the best of my recOl-
lectiOns it was sometime during the
Revolution, in 1878 or 70. There had
been more or less trouble with the In
dians in the Coos region. A white
man by the name of Stephen Wiggin,
who played the part of Simon Girty, on
a small scale, was a sort of instigatOr
among them. This man had once
been in the employ of Colonel Whip
pie, but had been dismissed for drunk
enness. That was long before the days
of the Washington or Reform Club
movements, and even the parsons had
their grOg, but the colonel was tenn
perate man, and did not cOuntenance
the use of liquor by any of his help.
Wiggin was angry because of his dis
missal, and swore to be avenged. of
course Whipple didn't pay much at
tentiOn to his threat, and after time
forgot all about it.
"But Wiggin did not forget. He
went among the Indians, and one
spring night at the head of a band of
painted savages swOOped down upon
the mansion like hawk upon brood
of chickens. The colonel, wholly un-
suspicious of danger, was asleep i'll one
of the lower rooms with the windows
open, Wiggin and the savages crept in
to this window and seized their victim
before he was fairly awake. They |
then made prisoners of the other in
mates, and prepared for a grand ca
rouse.
"At the time of his services on the |
farm, Wiggin had taken quite fancy
to Nancy, and to show his good will to |
the girl he did not bind her like the
rest. She was sent to the cellar for the |
wine. The colonel, though not
drinker himself, kept plenty of liquor
for the use of the company, like the
old time grandees. When he died
there was more than hogshead of West
India rum in his cellar, and bottles and
bottles of Madeira and Burgundy
real Burgundy, too, more than twenty
years old.
GAS l said, Nancy was sent to get